


When poking the sleeping bear

by Karatecake



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Desperation, Oblivious, One-Sided Attraction, Revenge, farmer doesn't exactly handle the situation well, leah cant leave it alone, oblivious elliot, thirsty leah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 08:39:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14160981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karatecake/pseuds/Karatecake
Summary: Be prepared for the repercussions.Not sure why I wrote this, but I like it enough to post. Hope y'all like it too!





	When poking the sleeping bear

It should be no surprise to anyone close to me that I don’t like Leah. Even after Elliot and I got married she would always find the time to try and get alone with him. She would invade our evening dinners to invite Elliot for a walk. ‘A quick walk,’ she would say, ‘among friends.’ Somedays, when the walk talk didn’t work out, she would keep trying to rope him out for an evening alone while I was sitting right there, right where I could hear her desperation.

To be frank, I was getting sick of it.

Her attitude only seemed to worsen after Adrian and Alegra D came along. The dinner interruptions soon became morning and afternoon ‘passing by’. She was no longer subtle with how much she was thirsting for my husband. It was becoming so unbelievably annoying. The girl couldn’t let it go, even when her perfect man was taken and a father.

I installed gates at every entrance to the farm, locking the one that lead down to her cabin. In the mornings when I tended to the rabbits, I would watch her from the coop as she deliberated hopping the fence or not. In the end, she would always walk away. But I knew she was just biding her time until Elliot took his daily walk down to the beach.

I’m very lucky that Elliot is such a loyal and ignorant man. He always turns her advances down so easily, almost like he doesn’t even know she’s trying to get him to cheat. When I broach the subject subtly, he’s always unsure of what I’m implying. Man… what did I ever do to deserve him?

Anywho, this whole situation was getting way out of hand. In her desperation, she would spout lies about her ‘super close friendship’ with Elliot and how our marriage was straining. When in reality Elliot barely spoke to Leah except on holidays and gatherings; even before I met him, and our relationship was getting stronger by the day. He had even broached the subject of adopting a third child! In an effort to deter her meddling, I would visit the saloon on Friday nights to watch Leah get smashed. I’d pick a seat across from her and start asking about her life, how things were going, what she was planning on doing someday. She would always try to deflect from that. She was a less than impressive artist trying to mooch off of someone with talent and disguise it as love. After the deflection, I would move onto my own life. How the kids were doing, something fun we did last week, etc. The pained looks on her face always seemed to brighten my mood. Only taking a few sips of my beer, I would watch her slip farther and farther into the little rut she called her life and hope she would give up the losing game she was playing.

She didn’t.

I knew I would have to do much more than psych her out while she drunk herself into a coma not even Shane could match. It was going to take some gossip, and who better to spread that gossip than the hottest piece around town: Marnie. She and I had become fast friends the moment my animal handling leveled from small animals to big. She and Mayor Lewis confided in me their relationship and I did the part of the trustworthy friend and didn’t tell a soul. I was their favorite citizen after that.

The recent visits to the saloon and my ‘pep talks’ had only increased Leah’s attachment to the pub. I knew I could always let her spend every last gold on booze until she was broke enough to lose her cabin, but I had a feeling she would cry to Elliot and he would guilt trip me into letting her stay with us and… well, that was never going to happen if I had anything to say about it.

After talking to Gus, I soon found out her Friday trips spread to Fridays and Saturdays, then the whole weekend, then Mondays, Wednesday’s, Fridays, and weekend days. This lined up perfectly with Mayor Lewis’ defeated drinking some Wednesday nights, when the bar was so empty Gus would serve and then head in for the night. I decided to enact my plan around 11 at night. The barkeep had already gone to bed, Leah and Lewis were too out of it to care, and I had myself a lovely bar key from Caroline. They never even looked up from their sad buzzes when I would refill their glasses. This continued until 1 in the morning when both parties had passed out.

Friday morning, I walked into Marnie’s place and planted the first seed.

“I heard the most terrible thing at the saloon this last Wednesday.”

She was hooked the moment ‘heard’ was out of my mouth.

“And what was that dear?”

“Well…”

I then told her I went to the saloon last Wednesday for a drink and overheard Leah trash talking me to Mayor Lewis. I made sure to hammer home that they were drinking together and that Leah was _way_ into his space. I dialed it back a little and said he looked uncomfortable, after all, the mayor was a good guy. It almost made me crack up at how appalled Marnie looked as I wove this little tale; it’s a good thing I wanted this to work, otherwise I would have begun cackling halfway through. Once Marnie ‘knew the truth’, that Leah was trying to lie to Mayor Lewis about me so she could get with Elliot and ruin our marriage, all while seducing Lewis to make sure he believed it, she was so upset I could see the steam of excess heat leaving her ears. My dominos were in place, all they needed to do was fall properly.

And fall they did.

Of course Lewis, who didn’t remember a single thing about Wednesday night, would immediately latch onto the story that Leah was the bad guy and that he was an innocent party. Anyway to escape the wrath of the missus. With Lewis verifying the story and Leah out of the picture nursing a major hangover from Wednesday and Friday night, word spread fast. With no one to place even the smallest seed of doubt, the story was widely accepted. Being liked by 90% of Pelican Town didn’t hurt either. Multiple towns people came to my door the following day offering apologies about the Bad Apple of the town. Of course, she was being called crasser names than Bad Apple, but I’ll let you piece those together.

Come Sunday morning, I felt like a giddy kid on Christmas knowing Leah would wake up to a shunning from everyone, even her dear sweet Elliot.

That’s right, my husband was one of the first to hear the gossip on the way to the beach. He rushed right back home and spent the day some parts raging about her betrayal as a friend, other parts apologizing and pampering me and the kids with love. Again, what did I ever do to deserve him?

I made myself as scarce as I could that Sunday, and Monday went to inspect the damage. From afar I watched as she walked through town, head hung low, as the glares and judgmental backs of those she called her friends were directed at her. I nearly went into a fit of laughter when Pierre upped the price of some produce when she tried to do her weekly shopping. 

Her drinking ramped up, every day of the week she was throwing herself into the Stardrop Saloon to drink away her sorrows. From noon to midnight she was slumped in the corner of the bar, throwing away her money like it was nothing. However, on Fridays, the weight of everyone’s glare became too much. She would pay for a pitcher and walk home in the cold night. I would watch in glee as she shuffled and stumbled home to her dingy little cabin.

It only took one more week of the silent treatment for her to knock over my final domino.

It was a late Tuesday night when we heard banging on the door.

Elliot persuaded me to stay in bed while he investigated, but I already knew who would be visiting tonight.

I snuck out and waited in the hall as Leah’s drunken form tried and failed to fall into our house. She was crying, begging. “Please, you and I were meant to be together! We were gonna be so great, until… until that _whore_ moved here and _stole you from me!_ ”

And my Elliot, my wonderful, wonderful Elliot, just destroyed her.

“Even if I did consider dating you back then, the woman I see now is nothing more than a crazed, drunken, fool who thinks I would _ever_ stoop so low to even consider cheating on my loving husband.”

Her drunken whimpers and mumbles were like music to my ears as Elliot finished with-

“Now get off our property before I call the cops.”

The next day I heard from Shane and Marnie that she went on a rampage through the forest before passing out on their doorstep.

I spent the longest time laughing in the green house after I heard that one.

A few days passed and there were no sightings of Leah. At first, I was extremely worried she’d… you know… _ended it_. But when she showed up on our door step a week later with a suitcase, I knew my game had ended well.

Elliot was off on another beach visit, she knew this, yet I could see her disgustingly hopeful looks over my shoulders into the house. As if he had suddenly changed his mind and was ready to ride off into the sunset with her. I was polite, extremely so, even inviting her inside for some tea just to see her cringe at the thought of hearing how wonderful my life was. She accepted out of embarrassment and, with some subtle tactics, I got the whole story out of her.

After her ‘incident’ she decided to get back in contact with her overbearing ex-boyfriend. She was moving back to Zuzu city in order to be with him. She tried to spin it so she was happy about the whole thing, but my brief friendship with her some years before I met Elliot filled in all I needed to know. She hated her ex and the city. The fact that she was crawling back to the slum where she originated from was so fitting for such a consuming person.

At one point she tried asking about the sculpture she’d gifted me during our friendly days, but the sound of an old pop song ringtone interrupted it.

The person who rang her cell was the cab driver she finished calling before I invited her inside. I dismissed her without another word as she dragged her pitifully small suit case out of my house. I kept my satisfied smile long after I finished my tea.

Elliot came home later that night wanting to know what happened with Leah. I told him the basics, but I tacked on a sweet little lie at the end.

“She told me to keep her sculpture as a reminder of the good old times. I hope you don’t mind, but, I’d like to keep it.”

Elliot gave me a pained look. I could tell he wanted to scrub away any and all memories of that two-timer. But, in the end, he couldn’t resist my compromise.

“Why don’t I place it in the green house; lord knows we need more decoration in there.”

The next few days were quiet and blissful. The tension that had built in town diffused quickly after Leah’s departure. I snuck the bar key back into Caroline’s possession and Mayor Lewis got some brownie points from Marnie for his heroism in The Leah Situation. My status in town became almost godlike for my cool head and compassion while Elliot was praised for his condemnation.

Soon, the issue of Leah’s old cabin came up during a town meeting. Everyone assumed Marnie would buy it and use it either for extra storage or a living space, but she quickly dispelled it by saying: “I’d rather not associate with it. It has some toxic energies.”

With no one to claim it, I ‘meekly’ stepped forward. I had plenty of money; far too much in fact. It wouldn’t even make a dent in my pocket book to buy 3 cabins. Everyone tried to dissuade me from owning something tainted by jealousy and greed. It only took one short speech about how wasteful it would be to let it rot to turn everyone’s opinions around.

One visit to Lewis’ house later and I was the proud owner of Leah’s pride and joy. The thing she made her own in an uncertain world. God was it intoxicating to be the one to take it all away from her. Not that she wasn’t asking for it though.

First thing I did was change the locks just in case she decided to come back. Second was install a few security cameras on the building. I wanted to see the look on her face when she realized everything she’d ever achieved was now in the hands of the man she tried to cuck out of his husband. I took my sweet time primping and priming the land outside the cabin; building the grand reveal of what I thought was inside. The ‘click’ of my newly changed locks opening was only the beginning of the satisfaction I felt when I saw the depravity that was Leah’s cabin.

Old, unfinished paintings littered the side walls while scattered papers lined the floor. Her bed was still unmade and messy and the fire place was still half stocked with wood. Her drawers were either all open or placed on the floor next to another piece of luggage that was only half packed. The kitchen table was covered in envelopes and writing paper, while the cabinets and fridge were scooped clean. After some investigating, I found those envelopes housed love letters to Elliot. I made sure to reseal them and stack them up nicely. What really caught my eye was the answering machine; the number display showed six different messages. It was one of those fancy answering machines, the kind that allow you to see dates next to the stored messages.

One was labeled two days before Leah left town, playing it revealed what I could only assume to be the controlling ex offering to take her back. It must have been like water to a man in the desert to hear that kind of backwards acceptance. In her time of self-brought pity she must have clung to it. The second one to catch my eye was labeled a year before Elliot and I met. The person that left the message was Elliot, the caller ID confirmed this, but the message was very impersonal. Just the answer to an RSVP to what sounded like an art show. I couldn’t help but smile when I heard his answer was no.

I left the machine alone, but I did plan on listening to the rest of those messages later. I wanted to keep this cabin in the moment. The moment she finally conceded. The moment I won.

I sat on her unmade bed and just took it all in.

I noticed she had left quite a lot of stuff behind. I knew she would most likely come back to retrieve the rest of it, but there was no way I’d let her back here. To tidy up this space would ruin the finality of it. But… there was one thing I could add to make it better.

-

It took 3 months before she came back. I caught her creeping from some dingy car on my way home from Pierre’s. She looked awful. Her shiny red hair was cropped short and dull and she had a tired look on her face. I hid behind a bunch of bushes as she snuck her way down the road onto my farm. I wasn’t sure if she was going to try and break in, but I knew Elliot would be there to apprehend her if she did.

While she shuffled her way onto my property, I went back to look at her car. No, not her car, her boyfriend’s car. He was slouched in the front seat, phone in one hand cigarette in the other. He looked like a grade A douche bag. I was tempted to bring both of them home for tea.

I fought the temptation when I thought of what the situation could spiral into: She would most likely ask about her locked cabin, I would be obligated to give her the key with Elliot and the boyfriend bearing witness, and she would ruin my perfect moment museum with her… everything. Nope, no way that was happening.

What would be happening, however, is the break down I’ve been waiting for for months. I crept back on the farm just as Leah was sneaking past my barn. The wooden lamps illuminated the shiny parts of what little clothing she had on. The sight was wonderful. Once inside, I locked the door and slipped past the bedroom and into the study upstairs. Putting on my headphones, I opened the security application and watched with a sadistic glee as Leah appeared on the first camera.

She looked even worse after a jarring walk down memory lane. The bags under her eyes were visible even in the terrible night vision of the camera. She shuffled along the dark edge of the cabin until she reached the door. Her surprised flinch as the motion sensor light flickered on made me giggle. After unclipping a small ring of keys from her belt, she slid the ‘right’ one in and turned it.

The key stopped with a satisfying ‘clunk’. I silently praised myself for going the extra mile and installing microphones to the cams.

Her noises of frustration became louder and louder as they echoed into the silent night. She became frantic when she realized the locks weren’t jammed, they had been changed. It wasn’t like she could go to Mayor Lewis’ house, it was the middle of the night. Plus, she was the one that abandoned it and left it to rot. Lewis would be more likely to chastise and send her off than point her in my direction.

She let out a muffled, “He’s gonna be so pissed if- “The rest was too quiet to hear, but I could tell where it was going.

She abandoned the door and moved to the window next to it. She tried desperately to pull the window up and crawl inside, but all she succeeded in doing was smearing her sweaty finger prints and palms all over the window sill. She cupped her hands to the sides of her eyes and peered in. What she saw made her freeze. My smile only grew. She’d found my gift.

I took the sculpture from the green house and placed it where it would be perfectly visible through the window. It stood there, tauntingly, to remind her of what she did to get it all taken away.

Her breathes became more ragged as she pulled back and screamed. Tears of frustration and anger dripped down her face taking large black clumps of makeup with them. She quickly covered her mouth when she remembered Marnie and Shane lived close by. She knew she’d be in real trouble if the two found her here. She scrubbed at her face, smearing the make up even more, and tried the other windows. More prints and mascara were smeared along them.

It took another few minutes of this charade before she finally gave up and began her walk of shame back to the car.

I quickly and quietly snuck back downstairs and double checked the door locks before shutting off the porch light. The last thing I needed was another confrontation with the kids around.

Once she was safely off the property, I went back outside and followed her to the car. I brought my phone with me to get a few pictures. Maybe I could hang them at an art club in Zuzu city, call it ‘Depraved and defeated’.

She shuffled up to the passenger window and leaned on the door, talking to her boyfriend through the window. I took a few shots before pocketing the device and listening.

“So, where’s the stuff? I didn’t just drive all the way out here for nothing, right?”

“I-I… they changed the locks…”

“Then just go tell em to give you the key, what’s the problem?!”

“I can’t do that, not wearing this, I’d- “

“I don’t care, just get in the car. Next time you want get your stuff, find someone else to take you.”

She didn’t respond. She reached her hand inside the car and pulled up on the lock until it popped open. Once inside, the boyfriend started the car. Loud grunge began blaring from the speakers into the quiet parking lot until he shut the windows. Leah looked extremely uncomfortable with the volume but made no move to turn it down. As I stood and walked back to the farm, the sound of screeching tires replaced the bumping grunge as the car peeled out of the parking lot and into the tunnel.

I smiled. “Well… that went much better than expected.”

-

The next morning, I purchased a bottle of clear sealant from Robin and took the scenic route down to the cabin. I shook the spray bottle and began coating the marks left by Leah. The prints and smudges would ever be on display next to smeared eye makeup. It was like the icing on an already perfect cake.

When Elliot took the kids down to the beach, I pulled back up the feed from last night and took the perfect screen shot. It was Leah mid scream with makeup darkening her cheeks. I took another for good measure of her smearing the black goop across her blotchy face.

Three days later I took a cab to a print shop just outside of Zuzu city dressed in concealing clothing. I made sure to monologue up a storm about my brilliance and artistic ability to distract the guy. The last thing I needed was for him to recognize me when Christmas card season came around.

I got my prints, my frames, and a box of tools to the cabin that night and hung with pictures in the kitchen. I made sure to have them facing sideways to the windows. It wouldn’t end well for me if Leah were to come back and see her face framed around the cabin.

Sitting back down on the still ruffled bed, I took the time to just think. I’d enacted one heck of a revenge plot on the young artist; someone I considered a friend a few years ago. I knew I had justification for some of my actions, she tried to consume Elliot to validate herself and tried to ruin our marriage, but… hanging up pictures, sealing finger prints, locking the poor girl out of her own house, that was just too much… right?

Yes, it was too much, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

It’s what she gets for daring to mess with my family.

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you're wondering, yes, I named my SV kids Adrian and Alegra D.


End file.
